The present invention relates to an improved process for producing an antimony-containing oxide catalyst. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for producing a catalyst for use in the oxidation, ammoxidation or oxidative dehydrogenation of organic compounds.
Many catalysts are known for use in the oxidation, ammoxidation or oxidative dehydrogenation of organic compounds. Particularly good results are obtained by antimony-containing catalysts such as the antimony-tin oxide composition described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,170, the oxide composition containing antimony and iron, cobalt and/or nickel oxides described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 19111/63, and the antimonyuranium oxide composition described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,151.
On the other hand, it is difficult to produce antimony-containing oxide catalysts of high strength. Several proposals have been made for improving the strength of antimony-containing oxide catalysts. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,341,471, 3,657,155 and 3,686,138 describe processes for producing antimony-containing oxide catalysts with improved strength.
However, the prior art techniques are not completely satisfactory for the purpose of producing catalysts having high activity and good physical properties. It is important to use catalysts having high activity and strength. Catalysts having high activity are not suitable for industrial use if their strength is low. In such fluidized bed reactions, the catalyst loss is undesirably large (due to scattering to the outside of the system) and it becomes difficult to operate the system in a steady manner. Even if this worst case does not occur, the consumption of the catalyst is increased so as to undesirably increase the manufacturing cost of the end product.